PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 



Vol. II. 



New York, January, 1895 



No. 1. 



DIGESTION AND ITS PHARMACEUTICAL AIDS. 



By H. A. HAUBOLD, M. D., 

 Assistant to the Chair of Physiology, Bellevue Hospital Medical College. 



UBRARV 

 NEW YORi 

 BOT/ 



CiAKDEJN. 



pvIGESTlON is the process that food 

 *-^ undergoes in its preparation for as- 

 similation by the general system. It is 

 absolutely essential to the maintenance 

 of animal life that food should be intro- 

 duced into the digestive system, and then 

 be taken up by the blood and distributed 

 to the various parts, organs and tissues 

 of the body. It is impossible to create 

 something from nothing Growth oi 

 tissue does not occur from contact with 

 air. 



The average weight of the human 

 adult is 140 pounds. The mean tem- 

 perature of human being is 99 F. Un- 

 der ordinary conditions of exercise and 

 rest a human animal consumes itself in 

 about 24 days. This consumption is 

 compensated for only by the introduction 

 of articles of food. 



In the time mentioned an animal may 

 consume more than its own weight but 

 never less. 



Raising the body temperature (as in 

 fevers) or by increase of muscular energy 



consumed, a human animal may use up, 

 or burn up, more than its own weight in 

 a given time, and if this is not com- 

 pensated for by the food the subject loses 

 flebh. 



On the other hand, if the animal intro- 

 duces and assimilates more food than is 

 consumed within this period of time, the 

 body weight is increased. 



A body is said to be in a state of phys- 

 iological equilibrium when the ingesta 

 equals the excreta — it then neither gains 

 nor looses weight. 



Food is the fuel that feeds the fire of 

 our human combustion. It is the sub- 

 stance that is consumed in the produc- 

 tion of animal heat and force- It bears 

 the same relation to the animal kingdom 

 that coal does to a steam-engine. It is 

 the genuine vis a tergo that enables us 

 to perform our functions. 



In nature nothing is lost, but all 

 tilings constantly change their form. 



So the human body takes from the 

 surrounding world its means of suste- 



